


stars fall down in you

by ninemoons42



Series: Dragon Age Inquisition - Kiriya - Original Flavor [11]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Cullenlingus, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Heterosexual Sex, Introspection, Oral Sex, Outdoor Sex, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-22
Updated: 2015-09-22
Packaged: 2018-04-22 22:33:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4853051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninemoons42/pseuds/ninemoons42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Outside of Skyhold, Kiriya Trevelyan and her Commander can temporarily let go of their burdens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	stars fall down in you

The grass was soft and damp beneath him, and he could feel the faint sharp edge of a rock against his ribs, and overhead the trees swayed with an insistent song, and the stars flowed across the sky like a glittering distant river, and for a moment he could close his eyes and let his thoughts ebb away. The memories of terrible dreams and the virulent glare of red lyrium; the screams for help and the agony of claws hooking into his skin -- 

Cullen took a deep breath, another, another. He let the deepening night in, drew darkness and the scent of wildflowers in, closed his eyes and opened them not to dreams but to the night sky above him, and felt content.

He could have this, he was allowed to have this: a moment’s respite from paperwork and worries and the wearing constant vigilance, the weight of so many lives on his shoulders.

He got to his feet and looked back over his shoulder, and through the dancing shadows of swaying trees he could just make out the battlements and walls of Skyhold, wreathed in watchtower-fires -- just enough light for him to retrace his steps. He thought about a mug of ale, nursed in a quiet corner of the Herald’s Rest -- maybe he’d let Dorian talk at him for a moment or two -- 

_Clop-clop. Clop-clop._ Coming closer.

The horse that passed him was almost darker than the night itself. Color, slashes of it, here and there: a star-splotch of white on its hindquarters, and a bandage wound around one of its rear legs. 

The rider, now -- she was familiar, and she was hunched over in the saddle, and every instinct Cullen had was screaming at him to go to her, to ease her pain -- 

He stepped out into the road, then, and held up his hand. “Whoa, there,” he said, and he held both hands up in the air, where horse and rider could easily see them. 

A soft voice, answering him. “Commander. I apologize for interrupting your -- ah -- moment.”

The Inquisitor -- no, _Kiriya_ \-- sounded worn down and ground up. She sounded small. Not at all the woman he’d raised a sword to, when first they’d found Skyhold and established the Inquisition in truth. What had they done to her? And there were so many _theys_ to blame: Corypheus and the mages and the templars and the Inquisition itself that she carried in her hands.

The least he could do was offer her his wholehearted support, and all of himself into the bargain.

So he took the horse’s reins and looked up at the rider -- dark eyes within the shadow of her cloak -- and asked, “Where did you have in mind?”

“I thought you’d be heading back up to your tower,” was the response. “Work to do.”

Documents awaiting his review, reports awaiting his perusal, lists upon lists upon lists. “Everything can wait,” Cullen said. “That is, if you don’t mind spending time with me.”

She laughed, something soft and strained, and he thought he felt something like a faint sense of relief -- like adjusting a strap in his armor, or resetting a glove that had twisted itself around his fingers. “Well. You did say I should wake someone up if I couldn’t sleep.”

“Are you feeling better?” Cullen asked as they began to walk down the path, away from Skyhold. 

“I’ve had more than my share of healing potions and that awful, awful tea that Dorian makes. And I’m tired of my bed, tired of my rooms, tired of paperwork.”

“You, too?”

Kiriya’s snort broke the darkness. “All those letters asking for a moment of the Inquisition’s time. And suitors, and marriage proposals, and -- _ugh_.”

That made him smile -- and the smile grew larger when the warm weight of her hand landed on his shoulder, just brushing the side of his throat. He thanked the darkness she couldn’t see his blush. “You had other company in mind?” he asked.

Instead of an answer he felt the horse shifting next to him, and quiet footsteps -- and then Kiriya was on his other side, leaning comfortably against his armor, against his coat. 

Cullen took the moment to push the hood of her cloak back. Starlight falling in faint silver points on her face, just enough to illuminate the fading bruises around her eyes.

He bent to her and pressed a kiss to the soft warm spot next to her mouth, and said, “I hope I’m better company than -- silly letters and all those, ah, twittering courtiers?”

His answer was a hand cupping his cheek.

He closed his eyes, and held her there, and the wind soughed and sighed in the trees.

“Come on,” he heard Kiriya say, eventually.

“I -- I don’t actually know where we’re going -- but I trust you,” he added, hastily, as Skyhold began to vanish into the night above them.

Shadowy smile, and a tug on his hand -- and he had nothing but his armor and his sword and there was no one to watch his back, but he thought he’d follow her to the ends of Thedas with just one word, one touch -- 

But Kiriya seemed sure of where she was going: and he followed her as she turned off the path. “You can leave the horse here,” she whispered, pointing to a nearby boulder, which rose to half again Cullen’s own height and ended in what seemed to be a sharp point.

“Won’t you lose him?” he asked, looking up at the trees and feeling like he needed to whisper, because he was intruding upon these trees, upon the birds calling sleepily in the night -- 

“We’ve been here before, he’ll manage,” Kiriya whispered back.

He was still holding her hand -- or she didn’t seem to want to take her hand back --

And finally she stepped into a half-circle of gnarled trunks, and Cullen followed her -- nearly all the way to an edge, the grass falling away abruptly into the stone of the mountains, a crack in the rocky walls and a view of a familiar valley. Cookfires and watchfires and the shadows of men and women and beasts as they settled down for the night.

“They’re safe,” Kiriya said. “Safe enough that I can look -- somewhere else.”

He looked at her, then, and at her finger, pointing up --

Up. Out. The dark sky opened before him and dazzled him with its stars, horizon to horizon lit in soft twinkling light, and he wanted to fall into that brilliant night.

One step forward. The crunch of rock beneath his feet.

And behind him, Kiriya, who was drawing her cloak closer about herself and smiling. “You see I don’t go out hunting things in the night, because someone I know worries about me,” she said, gently. “I found this place instead. I sit here and pretend my friends have just gone out scouting for the night. I pretend I’m not carrying titles around. I pretend it’s quiet inside my head.”

Away from the edge he moved; toward her side. He took her hand again. “In that I find we’re not so very different after all.”

A soft, wondering frown. “You’ve suffered far worse things than I have.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t want an escape from suffering. You’d hardly be the only one.”

He watched her open her mouth and then close it. “All right. I see your point.”

He followed her back to the rocky wall of the outcropping and sat down next to her. Grass beneath them, oddly lush, and above them that magnificent tapestry of the stars in the night. “I can see why you like this place,” Cullen murmured after a few moments. “Such peaceful surroundings.”

“Yes.” He felt her weight against him, her arm snaking around his waist, and he let her draw him in -- he had to try and slouch over in order to place his head on her shoulder, and he should have felt uncomfortable. 

Kiriya smelled like elfroot and wildflowers and the lavender scent that seemed to cling to her leathers, and blindly Cullen turned his head, filling his senses with her -- his lips brushed against her throat and he _felt_ her gasp, quietly -- 

“Sorry,” he murmured, and he would have pulled away, but she held on to him with that peculiar strength of hers.

“Stay,” was Kiriya’s reply, barely a whisper in the night. “Please, Cullen.”

“Gladly.” 

Warm. Kiriya was warm, and she was sharing that warmth with him -- he shivered as he felt her lips touch his forehead, as he felt her fingers on his cheek -- and he groaned, quietly, the gentle touches igniting fires in his skin -- he sat up, and caught her chin in his fingertips, and turned her to face him. Her eyes filled with starlight, unafraid. “Maker,” he said, and she shook against him. “You have no idea -- ”

He closed the distance between them -- and she froze and he thought his kiss was unwelcome, and he was about to pull back when she sighed softly and kissed him back. Whispered his name against his mouth.

_Cullen._

Movement. He followed, blind, dizzy, needing -- and then there was a weight in his lap and he forced himself to open his eyes, only to hiss in a breath and feel the thunder of his racing heart -- here Kiriya was atop his legs, straddling him, and he shuddered and opened up again to her insistent kisses. His hands at her waist, pulling her closer, grinding her against him; her tongue dipping into him, tasting him, and he wanted nothing more than to chase her, drink deeply of her -- 

Something thumped against him and he pulled back, startled -- and even in the dim light he could see the high color in her cheeks, the soft bite-marks he’d left on her lips -- he leaned in again, nibbling teasingly at the corner of her mouth --

Another thump. This time he frowned at her, and looked down.

Her fist against the breastplate of his armor. “Why are you wearing this,” Kiriya asked, tapping him with every word. 

“I -- well -- ” And Cullen laughed, and she leaned her forehead against his and kissed at the edges of his mouth, and he pulled away and shook his head. “You want me to take this off.”

She looked at him, searchingly, and then nodded. One sharp decisive movement.

“Anything you want,” he whispered, and his coat fell off his shoulders as he searched for all the right buckles and clasps -- and then he couldn’t help but smile when Kiriya took up his breastplate and laid it carefully to the side.

The gauntlets and bracers joined the breastplate, and he was about to start on the rest of it when Kiriya held up a hand. 

“The rest?”

She smiled. Held his face gently between her hands. “I -- how far can we go? How far are you willing to go?”

And for all the times he’d fumbled his words and his thoughts around her -- tonight was different. Tonight was _theirs_. “I believe I already answered that question,” he said, and he drank her in, felt desire spear through him, as she caught her breath and shivered -- and then he tasted that sweet need on her mouth. “Anything you want. I promise.”

He only had time to take in a quick breath before she was _crashing_ into him, needy and pressing ever closer, and before he could second-guess himself he slid his hands up her sides, up to her breasts -- and she whispered his name, encouraging, and again when he found the tight peaks of her -- hard and sweet even with the breastband that she was wearing. How he strained towards her, how he wanted to taste her -- 

“Please, please,” was the desperate answer, and he’d said the words out loud -- he leaned forward and licked at the skin of her throat. Down, to the tender juncture of her neck and shoulder -- he pushed her collar aside and set his teeth in her, just, and Kiriya moaned and pressed closer, and _Maker_ , the sounds she was making -- he nipped at her, sharply, and the cry that almost escaped her only inflamed him the more.

“Tell me what you want,” he whispered against her skin.

“Cullen, Cullen,” she moaned, “ _you_ , I want you -- ”

“ _Yes._ ” Only then did he unfasten her cloak and retrieve his coat, and get shakily to his feet -- she rolled adroitly away from him, and helped him spread their garments onto the grass.

The rest of his armor was a struggle to get out of, and he envied Kiriya her presence of mind as she stripped off her clothes -- and then he could only be transfixed as she shed her breastband, her smallclothes -- 

He couldn’t help but fall to his knees before her. Bared to him under the stars. The slight breeze carried to him the scent of her arousal: musk and sweet salt -- and before he could think he was pushing her to lie on her back, he was spreading her legs, he was hooking one of her knees over his shoulder -- 

At the very core of her: soft, springy curls and concealed within them, the heat and the pulse of her, and with the first taste of her he knew he was lost, he knew he’d want no other -- and the cries he could hear, distantly, through the relentless rush of blood in his veins, could only drive him on. He rolled the sweet bud of her on his tongue, again and again, and hummed encouragement, and his reward was the desperate thrashings of her, a rising wail -- and then he thrust a finger into her, his mouth still moving because she tasted so good, another finger -- 

Kiriya froze beneath him, tense, waiting -- 

“Come,” Cullen whispered against the arch of her hip bone. Hooking his fingers deep -- 

And he could feel it as Kiriya _shattered_ against him, powerful tremors that crested and crested and finally left her near-silent, curling in on herself, shaking.

He lay down beside her and took her into his arms, and kissed her gently, at the corners of her eyes.

“Give me a moment,” she whispered.

“I’m here,” he said, running his fingers carefully through her now-tangled hair.

“Good to hear that.” 

And then he found himself on his back -- lying half on the grass, half on Kiriya’s cloak -- and the woman straddling him was crowned and robed in stars, her smile sweet and full of promises, and Cullen gritted his teeth against the hot need in his blood.

He nearly cried out when she took his cock in hand, thumb moving over the head. He could _feel_ her spreading the wetness there -- he couldn’t help but thrust helplessly into the loose cage of her fingers. “Kiriya,” he said -- no, he _pleaded_. 

“Cullen,” she said, and then her hand was moving, was doing something different, was steadying him.

Too much. Too much. He closed his eyes. She was sinking onto him, careful, deliberate, down and down and down and he arched up helplessly into her, held fast in the grip of her -- 

Soft obscenities spilling out into the air between them -- Kiriya’s voice, distorted -- Cullen opened his eyes -- 

And he watched Kiriya plant her hands on his chest. Watched her lips form words. “Hold on.”

He caught his breath, he reached for her waist -- and she began to rock against him, hard and slow --

“Kiriya,” he whispered, desperately, and held on -- he thrust up into her, stilling her, making her throw her head back -- encouraged, he did it again, and again, and now she was moving _with_ him, calling his name, and together, together they strained for the edge -- her hands wrapped so strongly around his -- he couldn’t hold, he had to fall, he cried out -- “Kiriya!” -- and spilled himself into her.

A shout that seemed to echo his.

And when Cullen could see again Kiriya was still outlined in those stars, slumped over him, her shoulders heaving.

He took a deep breath and tried to sit up -- and hissed as he felt himself slipping out of Kiriya’s body.

“Oh,” he heard Kiriya say, moments before she slumped into his chest. “Oh, Maker. That was -- ”

Cullen held his breath.

Her arms coiled around his waist. “That was -- oh, I’ve no words. But you, you were _incredible_. Thank you.”

“It feels like I should be thanking you,” Cullen muttered, kissing along her damp hairline. “You were glorious.”

“Can we do it again?” Soft laughter.

“You’re going to be the death of me.”

“You didn’t say no,” Kiriya said.

“I wouldn’t dare,” Cullen said, and he kissed her when she smiled.

When she shivered he drew his coat over her.

“Have to get back soon,” he said, watching the stars wheel overhead.

“Yes,” Kiriya said, sounding a little sad. “Back to the noise of our minds.”

“I can’t say I look forward to it,” Cullen murmured. “I’d rather be with you.”

“Yes.”

“We could -- meet again? Spend time together?”

“Using my words against me, I like that,” she said. “And I like your suggestion very much.”

“Come work in my office,” Cullen offered.

“I won’t be a distraction?”

“You will be,” and he held her a little more tightly. “But perhaps we can -- find moments, just for ourselves.”

He heard her hum to herself, and then: “Worth a try. See to it in the morning, Commander.”

“Your will, Inquisitor,” Cullen said.

**Author's Note:**

> I am also on [tumblr](http://ninemoons42.tumblr.com/) and my Dragon Age: Inquisition blog is [here](http://ninemoons42-inquisition.tumblr.com/).


End file.
